[champignon]

My 2018 M2 (basic and with no options) is one of the two cars I drive year round but especially in the winter; the other is a 2018 VW Golf R. Both are manuals and neither has any options (not that VW offered any). The M2 is approaching 3 years of age and I bought it new (as I did with the VW).

When it comes time to ditch or trade in the M2, it will not be for another BMW. I might either simply sell it and not replace it, or if I replace it, I'll get something practical. It's fun to drive but not that much more fun to drive than the VW, which is an order of magnitude more practical, with its hatchback, 4 doors, and much greater carrying capacity in spite of the fact that it is smaller than the M2. In real world driving, the M2 does nothing better than the VW R, even though it is more luxurious.

My most common use scenario for these two cars is to drive them 155 miles, on mostly twisty mountain roads, in between my primary residence in the mountains, to get to my business residence in the big city. I do this 2-3 times a month, round trip, then put additional city mileage on the car while in the big city for several days to a week. When I go on these twice to three times monthly trips, I don't find myself oogling the M2 and wishing that I could use it on the upcoming trip. Rather, I alternate using the cars unless I need cargo capacity, in which case I take the VW. I'd probably be 5% less happy (not 10%) just having the VW and using it all the time. Not a ringing endorsement of my M2 :-)

Granted, I'm not speaking of a CS, although I doubt that the CS is enough better that it would make me think any differently about it. I don't track, so maybe that is worth mentioning.

There isn't a car in the current BMW range that would motivate me to drive 20 minutes to a dealership in order to test drive it. Oh well.